Zephyr of Faith
by Talos Angel
Summary: Suwako and Cirno meet up at a local farmers' market, and become unlikely friends after a bit of chaos. However, an angry entity sees Cirno as the key to her revenge. In her quest to re-unite with Cirno, Suwako will realize Cirno is more important to her than she thought. This will be the reboot of Mountain of Promises 1,2, and the unwritten 3.
1. Chapter 1: New Beginnings

A.N: Well, this is the beginning of the _Mountain of Promise_ Reboot I was so excited about making for all of you. Do not worry if you found the original to be full of flaws; I will correct many of those in this version. However, it won't be perfect, so this will be an AU fic of sorts, you will see how.

A.N.2: BTW Stevo, I watched your review of that Kingdom Hearts/Touhou fanfic, and I love your Mickey Mouse voice! It's perfect! It's just a shame you weren't around for the whole thing. Oh well. I wonder, though, are you going to do the other chapters, too?

A.N.3.: Just a question; now that I have a bazillion fanfics being updated that I can't focus on all at once, I need to know which one I should focus on; _Kyubee's Lament, At Your Service,_ or this?

Anyway, let's begin. ZEPHYR OF FAITH!

CHAPTER ONE: NEW BEGINNINGS

Moriya Shrine; it was just one of many places in a wild, and untamed world, Filled with mountains that reached out and grabbed the clouds like greedy seals grabbing fish, Forests that seemed to swallow the very valleys they occupied, and most importantly of all...magic! The shrine stood out as an unusual settlement among the stones and shrubs of what locals call "The Great Youkai Mountain." For being in existence for so many decades, the white and green paint that adorned its walls and pagodas was relatively fresh, and the buildings themselves, while missing a tile here and there, were otherwise well-kept and durable. On the steppes of the shrine sat a young (looking) woman with long, blonde hair and a wide-brimmed straw hat...with eyes! This woman was known as Suwako, the former goddess of earth...now retired after having passed her powers onto her greatest disciple.

"Good morning, miss Suwako," Sanae, the (comparatively) young green-haired shrine maiden called out, "Are we going to pick up supplies at the village, today?"

"Sure, sure." Suwako lightheartedly answered, waving her right hand in response.

"Well, let's go right now!" Sanae squeaked as she grabbed Suwako's right arm, dragging harshly in the direction of the narrow dirt path that winded across the distant, grassy hills that lead off into the horizon.

"Hold your horses!" Suwako protested, "We need to get the trading wagon!"

"Oh! Silly me." Sanae chirped as she ran around the back of the shrine, and grabbed the handles of a wooden cart with two wheels, containing a single wooden barrel and a wooden crate. Suwako grabbed hold of one of the handles, while Sanae took the other. With a huff and a wheeze, both girls hoisted the cart onto the unpaved road.

,,,

In the nearby town, life was bustling and hustling as usual; farmers gathered at their wooden stalls, and spoke casually while waiting for the locals to come over with something to trade, villagers with more permanent shops and homes just waking up and having a hardy breakfast in preparation for a long day. Children ran and played their games with each other, While the village cats, dogs, and birds all chased each other to hell and back. Around the front of one particular store was a small group of rather short girls; fairies, in fact. Among them was a girl with short ocean-blue hair, and deep, azure eyes, who stared blankly off into the cloudless sky.

"Cirno! You hungry or something?" A fairy girl with black hime-cut hair in a blue dress piped up.

"No, Sapphire...I'm just...restless..." The blue-head replied, sweeping her hand through the air dismissively.

"You've been acting weird lately," A blonde fairy with a sunny demeanor chimed in, "Are you sure you're not sick or something?"

"Nothing like that," Cirno grumbled, turning away, "I've just got this feeling..."

"Like I said, she's just hungry!" Star Sapphire spouted triumphantly, "I'm never wrong about these things!"

"Nu-uh!" Sunny Milk retorted, "She's obviously sick! Just look at her sickly complexion!"

The two fairies loudly squabbled and argued as they slapped and bit viciously at each other, while a quiet, curly blonde-haired fairy wearing a beret just sighed and shook her head at the shameful display.

"Look you two!" Cirno snapped, grabbing both fairy girls by their blouses, "I'm not sick or hungry! I just have a weird feeling...like something is about to happen!"

The two were so quiet that one could hear a spider bark. "So are you hungry?" Star Sapphire asked, with a mischievous grin on her face.

Cirno shot her a glare, but then smiled. "You know what? Maybe some food will get my mind off of this. C'mon Luna!" She shouted, gesturing to the mute, who nodded and followed the girls as they flew off to the market stalls.

None of them, however, noticed a lone, murky, sickly figure moping about out of sight behind a nearby house...

(To be continued in CH. 2)


	2. Chapter 2: Bitter Vengance

A.N: WELL! This took a long time to come out, but I have been busy with school and DA. I guess this is like a late Christmas gift to you all, lol (not really, though...) In other news, I kind of want to update _Kyubee's Lament_ as well, because Alice told me that she likes it, and I honestly haven't really gotten to the lamenting part yet. as for _At Your Service_, I'll hold off on it for now, since that is supposed to be shorter, anyway. As for new fanfics, I wanted to do a Katawa Shoujo fanfic or even my own FiM fanfic, but I don't have any good ideas for one at the moment, But I will get there eventually.

A.N.2: By the way, Stevo, I thought your reading with Spaz of the Rumia fic was hilarious! Your voice for the dragon reminded me of Turle from _Battlefield Earth_! I hope you get to use it more often! I heard the fic was outdated, though, and there was a more up-to-date one out. I think you should review the most recent edition of any fanfic, since that is mo0re likely to represent the author's current style, problems, etc. The review was still good, anyway. Do you know if you will review more fics, or if you need help finding any? I'm always here for you!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO XOXOX

~Talos Angel, the Fanfiction-Writing Yukkuri~

CHAPTER TWO: BITTER VENGANCE

Wooden joints grinded against each other, as the resident living doll, Medicine Melancholy, landed her hand on the wall to her right, as she squinted her eyes, staring across the busy marketplace. She noted every single human, every laugh, every exchange...every footstep...and hissed venomously under her breath.

"...So a few dolls weren't enough for you, were they? You just had to kill some poor, defenseless plants and fish to satiate your bloodthirst..."

Medicine dug her hard fingers into the wall next to her, dragging and ripping at the wood as her hand hesitated every other second, as if she were a bear trying to cleave a table asunder. She dragged her talon-fingers out of the dead wood of the house, and brought it to her chin.

"...Such arrogance deserves to be punished...does it not?" Medicine whispered almost too quietly for even herself to hear. She slowly raised her other hand as it began to glow with an unusual, erratic flame of dark purple ectoplasm; swaying and jerking all about hatefully. The magic ducked and weaved out of the living doll's hand, slowly working its way to the market stalls.

"Oh...It SHALL be punished all right..." Medicine cackled silently, her fingers twitching wildly with anticipation .

...

Over by the stalls, the four fairies hovered near a crowd next to the stall belonging to a young-looking woman with pink hair on her head, and brown sparrow wings protruding from her back. Her dark red apron stained with various colourful spots, and her skin had spots wrapped in bandages. She was very busy managing several black metal pans full of long, spaghetti noodle-like lampreys, panting and fluttering her neck like a dog who had been out in the sun all day.

"Hello, Mystia!" Cirno called out, floating up to the stand with the others fluttering close behind.

The sparrow girl peeked up, greeted by four hungry fairies, smiling and flapping about eagerly.

"Oh, hi, Cirno!" Mystia chirped back, "Great weather today, isn't it?"

"Great for raising lampreys, it seems." Cirno chuckled.

Mystia giggled back. "I suppose you and your friends want some?"

The three talkative fairies all shouted "Yeah!" while Luna Child was content to merely nod enthusiastically. Mystia grinned widely as she pulled a pair of long, dark chopsticks out of her back pocket, and proceeded to swing them at the pan containing great long coils of marinated, sizzling lamprey meat. She skillfully fenced and flipped the coils through the air with the chopsticks, flaunting a fancy finale of fine finesse, finally landing four coils inside four separate bowls in front of her. Mystia then curved her arms in a wide arc, dipping the sticks into a barrel full of steaming white rice. She quickly swung her arms forward, causing a glob of white rice to appear in each bowl as she swung. Mystia the winked, and extended her right arm.

"And, of course, one of you has to pay." She smugly pointed out.

Cirno looked back at Star Sapphire, whose eyes hastily shifted to Sunny milk, who was all too eager to return the treatment. Luna child emitted a loud sigh before reaching into her pockets, pulling out a small, but bulky and heavy bag, and handed it to Mystia with both of her hands. Mystia's eyes sparkled as she took the bag, quickly darting all four of the bowls to the fairies. Luna shot the other three fairies a disgruntled glare, and a puffy, upset pout.

"We'll pay you back, later...right?" Cirno tried to assure Luna, but Star Sapphire and Sunny Milk looked away as they stuffed their faces directly into their food bowls, not even bothering with eating utensils.

"Well...**I **will pay you back...eventually..." Cirno nervously snickered. Luna sighed, and waved her hand while shaking her head. Cirno looked down, frowning.

Before Cirno or Luna could bite into their meals, they all heard a loud shriek, and immediately snapped to look. A brown-haired, brown-eyed woman started running, the look on her face suggesting that she had just seen a phantom tear someone asunder. Soon, a small horde of marionettes, made entirely out of carrots followed, hissing and flailing in rage, as if they were a mob chasing Frankenstein's monster. Before the fairies could even react, the crowds began to panic more and more, as all of the fresh produce brought to the stalls began to assemble themselves into small soldiers, picking up any available splintery wood to use as weaponry. Even Mystia's lampreys suddenly sprung back from the dead, lashing and coiling about, biting viciously for their post mortem victims. Cirno threw her bowl aside, as Luna did the same, before they simultaneously pulled the food bowls away from Star and Sunny. The fairies instinctively fired a small volley of energy at the four lashing, angry food bowls, incinerating them in a bright pillar of blue and gold. Mystia flailed madly, screeching madly as she yanked at the lampreys that were biting into her. Cirno gritted her teeth.

"How are we gonna help her without blasting her to bits?" Cirno cried out in frustration. Luna child puckered her lips in a blowing motion, waving her hands to mimic the movement of air. Cirno blinked at her blankly. Luna groaned as she planted her head in her palms.

"I think she means do the opposite and freeze 'em!" Star guessed.

Cirno shrugged, and cupped her hands in Mystia's direction. She fired out a chunk of shining blue energy, freezing Mystia and all of her lampreys solid in one fell swoop.

"Was that...really a good idea?" Cirno asked, slowly backing up.

Star Sapphire, Sunny Milk, and Luna Child wasted no time in tearing the frozen lampreys from the unmoving Mystia. "Well, they aren't twitching around so much, now." Sunny Milk squeaked.

"I guess..." Cirno weakly replied, glancing around to assess the situation. Several people were being bogged down and shanked by the vegetable-soldiers, screaming in agony as thorny wood pierced them. Cirno charged a blue aura in her arms as she began to fire out waves that encased the veggies in frost, sadly attracting the attention of those who didn't get frozen. Cirno squinted as she fired wave after wave, freezing more and more of the vegetable warriors, but for every one she froze, a dozen more seemed to rush forward. Before Cirno could comprehend it, the vegetable golems were climbing and sprawling all over her, lashing and stabbing about as the blue fairy struggled to free herself.

"Luna?! Star! Sunny?! Anyone?!" Cirno screeched as she felt herself getting crushed under the sheer weight of the animate vegetables atop of her. She could not tell if they were free to help...or even alive with the biomass obscuring her vision. Desperately, Cirno formed blue energy in her right hand, that shot out in a crooked fashion. The energy solidified into a jagged blade of ice, shimmering nearly pearlescent in what little light could get to it. Cirno closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and swung her right arm as hard as her muscled would allow, tearing an opening in the veggie-troops' formation, and nearly blinding her with light. Sadly, the tear sealed shut even more quickly as the great produce army seems to have gotten reinforcements. With each slash, there was only a temporary flash of light, like clicking a lantern on and off in a given spot. Before long, Cirno's arm started to ache with lactic acid, and her breath was becoming short and heavy.

_Luna...Star...Sunny, _She exhaustedly thought, _I hope at least you three got away._

Then, Cirno was blinded for a few moments by an enormous white light that surrounded her entire body. It practically burned her skin to the touch.

"Am I dead?" She quietly whispered as the pain and blinding subsided.

"Thankfully, no!" Suwako shouted a few meters in front of her, ankle deep in sliced produce and fish, neither of which seemed too threatening anymore.

"Where are my friends?" Cirno shouted with concern, gradually un-shielding her eyes to see the blonde figure better.

"We're okay!" Sunny Milk cheered, Star and Luna floating alongside her as the three flew near Suwako, "That girl just blasted those crazy vegetables out of town! The rest of them just sort of...gave up." She stated, gesturing to Suwako.

Cirno tilted her head to the side, looking Suwako in the eye. "Who are you, anyway?"

Suwako slowly bowed forward, her hands on her lap, and a smile upon her face. "I'm Moriya Suwako. Former goddess of the Moriya Shrine."

Cirno raised an eyebrow. "'Former' goddess?"

Suwako sighed. "I have my reasons. Trust me on that."

Cirno shrugged. "Whatever you say." She mumbled.

There was a brief moment of silence before Sanae rushed in to Suwako's side. "Suwako! Did they stop?" She shouted with concern.

"They've stopped, and most of the townspeople are fine, but some got hurt by the animate food. Most are just shaken up, though." Suwako calmly replied.

"Thank goodness." Sanae gasped in relief, before she looked over at the fairies. "Some of the survivors?"

"Yeah!" Star Sapphire piped up, "And we kicked their asses without breaking a sweat!"

All the girls shared an awkward chuckle with each other, while Medicine continued to watch from behind the house.

"...A bit tougher than I anticipated," She grumbled under her voice, "That will just make it all sweeter..."

(TBC in Ch. 3)


	3. Chapter 3 A Chance (of Eternity)

A.N: Well, this took a while to come out with, but I got around to it. I'm on vacation now, but I can still write and post things. Me and Alice are doing fine and have seen some cool stuff, but I am kinda tired right now, so I will probably go to sleep after I am done typing this.

Sincerely with all the love you have given me,

~Talos Angel, the Fanfiction-Writing Yukkuri~

CHAPTER THREE: A CHANCE (of eternity!)

And so, the Moiyra Shrine's proud and powerful former goddess and apprentice priestess were pulling the cart back to their shrine with the four fairies in tow, satisfied that they had all done a good job stopping the vegetable army.

"Well...thanks for inviting us in for lunch." Cirno chirped, "Even if none of us are hungry."

"Hey, speak for yourself!" Star Sapphire belted out, rubbing her stomach.

"Eh...I just thought it would be a nice gesture," Suwako responded, "You don't actually have to eat it."

"Well, if you take the time to prepare it, we may as well eat it." Sunny argued, rubbing her stomach.

"Eh, Touche', I guess." Cirno responded.

"Please, we're inviting you over as guests," Suwako interrupted, "You can eat if you want to...or not if you don't."

And just like magic, they had all appeared before the Moiyra Shrine, gazing upon its vast structure that towered above the surrounding mountainous rocks and grass. Two massive wooden snakes adorned the gateway, gazing down at the arrivals as if they were tasty rodents.

"Woah! This is COOL!" Cirno gasped, pointing at the reptilian shrine, "You two actually live here?!"

"We sure do!" Sanae chimed cheerfully, "It's been here since before ma was born!"

"Really?" Star asked, "Even before...y'know...the oldest of the gods?"

Suwako shrugged. "This place was here when I was a tad, and my predecessor was still the Earth Goddess. It was ancient when my predecessor was born. I honestly doubt any living being knows exactly who built it, or exactly when."

"Maybe Yukari knows!" Cirno laughed.

Suwako sighed and shook her head. "I doubt she's THAT old. She would have to be a dinosaur or something."

Everybody chuckled at that thought as they headed inside the shrine, to where Kanako was meditating. The room was mostly shadows, dimly lit by a few golden torches nested in hanging bowls from the ceiling. Kanako slowly opened her dazzling, divine violet eyes to greet the visitors.

"My mother and daughter," Kanako beamed without even opening her mouth, "You have brought fairies with you?"

"Not just fairies!" Cirno shouted as the fairies posed dramatically, "The fairies who saved the human village from the latest incident!"

Kanako raised an eyebrow. "Incident? Yes...I sensed a disturbance in the very ground and life of Gensokyo..."

"It was vegetables," Suwko awkwardly responded, "Vegetables gone wild."

"Ah, that would explain it." Kanako sighed, "I will look into it. Judging from the way the power flowed, a single individual had animated ALL of those vegetables. I don't know who, though."

"Don't fret, my daughter," Suwako sighed reassuringly, "We've beaten their forces off, so I doubt they will try anything like that again so soon."

"Still..." Kanako whispered as she went back into deep concentration.

"You know, you should really take a break," Suwako stated with concern, "All of that power focusing might work up an appetite or make you tired."

"I'm the goddess of Earth, ma," Kanako retorted, "I'm sure I don't even need to eat or sleep."

"Just looking out for you," Suwako sighed as she followed the fairies over to a low table in the more well-lit room to the east. It was nothing special; just green walls, a brown wooden floor, and a tarp-flap door leading to a kitchen. The fairies were already seated on the floor at the table, while Sanae was nowhere in sight. Sanae burst from the kitchen holding a plate of teriyaki chicken and a pyramid of spring rolls, with a healthy helping of white rice and kalamari, with some banana flan for dessert.

"My, my," Suwako gasped, "You are a pretty fast chef, aren't you?"

"You could say I'm miraculously fast!" Sanae responded with a smirk and a wink.

The fairies stared and salivated at the hearty meal that lied before them, twitching slightly with anticipation.

"I aint wasting any more time!" Cirno shouted as she plunged her hands directly into the meal, scarfing entire handfulls without a second thought.

The other fairies wasted no time in joining Cirno in her feast, as rice grains and crumbs went flying in every direction.

"Weren't you NOT hungry a little while ago?" Suwako chuckled to Cirno.

"Changed my mind." Cirno blurted out in between bites.

Suwako and Sanae stood back and unblinkingly stared as the fairies vanquished the whole course in less than a minute.

"That was great!" Sunny cheered.

"Thanks!" Star chirped.

Luna child simply nodded, smiled, and licked her lips.

"Can we stay over?" Cirno asked excitedly.

Suwako shook her head. "Don't you fairies have a place of your own for the night or something?"

The fairies looked away from Suwako, turning their eyes in the opposite direction while fidgeting.

"...The short answer would be...'Not now.'" Cirno responded after a few seconds.

Suwako closed her eyes and nodded. "I understand." She whispered.

(TBC in Ch. 4!)


	4. Chapter 4: A Lead

A.N: Recently, someone named Dr. O has reviewed _Scarlet Pain_ for me. I appreciate your help, Dr. O, but I think you're a bit too late. Stevo and Waddle Dee already reviewed that fic on Youtube, and they pointed out the stuff that was wrong to me there. Still, I think you did a good job of finding what was wrong, and making it a little funny in the process. I hope you continue to review fanfiction and help people learn what they are doing wrong. Thank you and bless your heart!

~Talos Angel, the Fanfiction-Writing Yukkuri~

CHAPTER FOUR: A LEAD!

The girls had woken up to the cacophony of Sanae bashing two pans against one another as the sound reverberated from the walls and flew about everywhere.

"Get up! get up! Get UUUUUUUUUUUP!" Sanae squealed, "Momma Kanako wants to talk to you, grandma!"

Suwako and the fairies slowly got up amidst grumbles and sighs, reaching for their daytime clothing, stacked neatly in front of their ground mats.

"Ugh...I get we need to be up early," Star moaned, "But were the friggin pans necessary?!"

"Yes!" Sanae beamed proudly.

"Well, at any rate, I should see what she found out." Suwako suggested, "That is, after I get cleaned up a bit."

Suwako and the fairies stretched, washed up, and got into their daytime clothes before appearing before the still meditating Kanako in the middle of the dark, cool shrine. The lights were dimmer than usual, and a draft permeated the whole room.

"Hey, why is it so cool and dark?" Sunny asked, her arms crossed.

"It helps her concentrate, sometimes." Suwako responded.

"Whoever animated those vegetables was very clever indeed; they were able to erect some sort of magic signal scrambler that prevents me from identifying exactly who they are." Kanako stated solemly.

"Wait! But you're a god!" Cirno gasped, "How can you not identify them?!"

Kanako shook her head. "On top of not being very experienced with this power myself, there are some magicians who possess the ability to evade the eyes of gods. I fear our 'botanomancer' is likely one of them."

"You said that you couldn't identify them exactly," Suwako pointed out, "So what did you find out, exactly?"

"I found out that the caster of that spell was most likely some sort of animate doll," Kanako explained, "I would suggest starting with someone who knows about living dolls...someone like Alice."

Suwako raised an eyebrow while stepping back. "I doubt Alice would ever want to do something like that! She just wants to be left alone."

"I do not sense any resentment against the villagers within her," Kanako replied, "But maybe one of the dolls she created decided to go renegade against the humans for some reason. I wish I could say for sure."

Suwako tilted her hat forward and whistled. "Looks like I'm paying Alice a short visit." She muttered.

"You mean WE'RE paying her a short visit!" Cirno chirped boldly.

"No, I mean 'I'm.'" Suwako protested, "I don't think taking on this culprit yourself would be a very smart idea."

"C'mon!" Cirno shouted, "I can kick that bitch's ass with my sweet ice power!"

"And we're always there to help!" Star sheepishly blurted as the other three fairies struck a dramatic pose.

"I'm afraid not." Suwako sternly said, "It just isn't safe. If those vegetables overwhelmed you, then imagine what their controller could do."

Cirno crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks. "You need us and you know it!" She mumbled.

Suwako shook her head as she left without a single word, blasting through the air with the pump of her legs. Sanae approached Cirno from behind and placed her hand on Cirno's shoulder, smiling a little bit with a bit of a sparkle in her eyes.

"Grandma just wants you to be safe," Suwako told her, "She says I can't go fight indic...inciend...indecent causers until I finish my training."

Cirno huffed before stepping outside and spreading her crystal wings. She jumped several meters into the air before she turned in the direction of the Magical Forest and zipping away.

"Wait!" Sanae shouted as she ran out of the shrine, just in time to see the last glimpse of Cirno's azure air trail.

"I wouldn't worry about her," Sunny chirped, "She's the toughest one of us four!"

"Yeah!" Star chimed in, "I once saw her kick this bear's ass...right before the bear got mad and chased her off...But she still kicked the bear's ass!"

Luna gave an obviously forced smile as she nodded and pumped both of her fists into the air.

"I hope you're right." Sanae sighed as she went back inside, gesturing to the other fairies to follow.

Meanwhile, there was a quiet little cottage in the middle of the Magical Forest. The cottage's pearly-white paint colour made it stand out clearly from the various shades of green and orange that composed the curious forest around it. On the front porch of this cottage sat Alice Margatroid, gently combing the hair of one of her Shanghai dolls, who was humming pleasantly to herself. Alice opened her eyes slightly as she caught a glimpse of a spark headed her way, so she backed up slightly. the spark got bigger and brighter as it approached by the seconds, causing Shanghai to notice the figure's approach. Both Alice and Shanghai shielded their eyes and looked away as Suwako slammed into the ground foot first and standing up perfectly, scattering dust and dirt every which way. Alice and the doll blinked several times before looking at Suwako standing before them.

"You know, you could've slowed down a bit before landing." Alice grumbled just barely loud enough for Suwako to hear, "You mussed poor Shanghai's hair."

Shanghai squeaked a bit as she ran her tiny, jointed fingers through her messy, stringy corn-yellow hair.

"Sorry about that," Suwako said, rubbing the back of her head with her right hand, "But I have some very important questions to ask you."

"How important?" Alice asked, cocking her head ever so slightly while she placed her hands on her hips.

"Do you know anything about any dolls casting animating magic on a bunch of innocent farmers' vegetables?" Suwako asked.

"I don't know about any one of my dolls being able to do something like that," Alice responded, "You'd have to be pretty damn powerful to do somethin' like that, and I was done makin' dolls like that a LOOOOOOOOOONG time ago."

"Wait," Suwako interrupted, holding up her hand, "You USED to make dolls...'like that?'"

"That's what I said, lady," Alice huffed, "But I DON'T Make em' 'like that' now!"

"Do you think one of your older dolls may still be around?" Suwako inquired.

"I doubt it," Alice laughed, "A friend of a friend killed em' all in her little war against my ma."

Shanghai began to shudder and whimpered a little bit. Alice patted her head and hummed slightly.

"But that mean old miko isn't going to get you, little Shanghai, don't you worry." She whispered to the cowering doll.

Suwako tilted her head to the side and scratched it. "I don't think that's what she's worried about." Suwako stated.

"And why is that?" Alice asked, glaring at Suwako, "Did YOU spend your whole life making sentient dolls?"

"No," Suwako replied, "It's just that-"

Suwako ducked as she was suddenly cut off by a Shanghai doll crashing through the window, enveloped in an ominous dark-purple aura and holding a kitchen knife in front of her, barely missing Suwako's face by a centimeter. The doll circled around, growling menacingly as she foamed at the mouth.

"I was thinking THAT may be a more immediate concern!" Suwako shouted as she pointed back at the crazed doll. Just as Alice got up to see what was going on, several dozen more possessed dolls crashed through the windows, snarling and armed with knives, small lances, and any sharp, dangerous object they could find inside the house.

"What in the...?" Alice asked, firmly holding the panicking and crying doll in her arms before several of the dolls dashed towards her at breakneck speeds, their weapons pointed forward in an arodynamic suicide charge. Alice ducked just in time toavoid being skewered, and instead the dolls lodged their weapons into the side of the house.

Suwako's hands glowed with a bright golden light before Alice pounced at her and grabbed her arms.

"Don't you dare hurt any of them!" Alice screamed, "I don't care how crazy they're actin'! They're my children!"

"Then what AM I supposed to do?!" Suwako shouted back at her.

"I don't know!" Alice yelled, dodging another attempted impalement, "Something must be making em' mad!"

WHIZZ

SLASH

The dolls kept rushing like miniature hurricanes into the girls, cutting them with each swipe and slash as Suwako tried to throw Alice off of her. One of the dolls seized the moment to dash directly at Suwako's throat. Suwako desperately tried to shake out of the way before she heard a large gust of wind. Suwako and Alice looked over and saw that all of the possessed dolls had been frozen completely solid in jagged chunks of shimmering blue ice. Suwako looked upward and saw Cirno floating right above her, a smug grin planted upon her face.

(TBC in CH. 5)


End file.
